


rah kat

by js71



Series: Assorted Star Wars Splashes (w/Dai Bendu) [7]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dai Bendu, Gen, Jedi as Found Family (Star Wars), Total AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27223081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/js71/pseuds/js71
Summary: rah kat: (Dai Bendu) family; a collection of people who are tightly knit“Aay’shee,” Obi-Wan murmurs into her ear, rocking her gently, like when jaieh was off on a mission she couldn’t go on, so her jaieh-raheniel would take turns having her over at their apartments.
Relationships: Aayla Secura & Anakin Skywalker, No Romantic Relationship(s), Obi-Wan Kenobi & Aayla Secura
Series: Assorted Star Wars Splashes (w/Dai Bendu) [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977589
Comments: 1
Kudos: 92





	rah kat

It’s only after the battle is over, that they realize exactly what happened. Aayla stumbles in Anakin’s general direction, and he does the same towards her, and the two of them grab each other’s arms at the elbows, holding on tight, their forearms pressed against each other’s. Aayla lets out a huff of something, and Anakin chokes out what could possibly be a sob, and they just support each other for a very long time.

Aayla only just got Knighted, and she’s young for it. Anakin is still a Padawan, and while he’s a Senior Padawan, he’s still a Padawan and has less training than she does. Both of them shouldn’t really be in their situation - nobody should be in their situation, but they can’t change the past, and they both know it.

“Whoa,” Anakin says hoarsely, eyes finding Aayla’s. She can sense the turmoil in him and the Light, and it’s an anchor for her own turmoil and Light, just like she’s an anchor for him, the two of them catching one another in a feedback loop, one to ground them, and sinking into some sort of shared meditation, trying to process everything.

It’s not much later that someone sets a hand on Aayla’s shoulder, and she pulls away from the meditation, rising to the surface and coming out, the Force dripping away from her. Luminara was the one who’d pulled them out, and beside her, was one of the soldiers, the ones that made Aayla’s stomach churn, but not because of her.

“Jaieh Obi,” she whispered, letting go of Anakin, and taking a step towards where Obi-Wan was standing by Mace and Depa, none of them alright, and immediately stumbled, her legs tingling with pins and needles from diving into mediation so fast, and being pulled out as Luminara had done. It was not the time to be slow.

Luminara caught her by the crook of her elbow, and Aayla stared at the ground, where she’d almost -

She whirled around, so her back was to Luminara, and she took two stumbling steps, collapsed to her knees, and threw up. She didn’t care how others might see her; her rah kat was there, and her raheniel was imkai and -

Her stomach rolled, and she threw up a second time, spitting and coughing, bending over, hands and elbows planting on the dirt until someone helped her up. She stumbled into her jaieh-raheniel, who’s arms wrapped around her from the side.

“Imkai,” she choked out, head dipping forwards and lekku brushing the back of her shoulders as she gagged. Anakin offered her a torn strip of his tunic, and Aayla blinked at him. She could have sworn that he’d had two arms earlier, but no, he was missing one. When -

“Does someone have water?” Jaieh-raheniel asks and Aayla wheezes painfully, tears hot in her eyes. She knew the imkai, she knew them, kar paden, kar paden -

“Aay’shee,” Obi-Wan murmurs into her ear, rocking her gently, like when jaieh was off on a mission she couldn’t go on, so her jaieh-raheniel would take turns having her over at their apartments. While Obi-Wan smells of sweat and feels like loss and pain, he’s also a rock of starlight, and he smells like sapir tea. “Aay’shee, rakaah keelak wungak?”

“Shet,” Aayla shakes her head, which makes it hurt, and she lifts a hand, fingertips brushing the leather of her headband, where it crosses her forehead. “Ibli sooah foh enoctak… Ibli, maya foh.”

“Water,” Anakin says quietly, voice raspy, and he held up a canteen, the container shaking slightly in his hand - his off-hand, Aayla noticed, allowing herself a few sips, forcing herself to swallow. “Sooah keelak enoctak?”

“Ibli,” Aayla repeats, wiggling a bit, and freeing herself from Obi-Wan, trying desperately not to look like a Youngling who’s had too much candy and thrown up from it, because that’s what she feels like. “Cadeo, Anakin. Orhma foh.”

He’s not convinced, and neither are her jaieh-raheniel, but Aayla’s done throwing up and done looking at the imkai, because that hurts, and while Jedi are supposed to be brave, she feels like a Youngling in the crèche, who got told a horror story by the Initiates, and is now hiding under the covers with her back to the wall, utterly terrified.

But she’s good at faking it, so they let her act like she’s fine. Aayla straightens and looks around, eyes finding person after person in the white armour, and after there’s a pull for Luminara and Obi-Wan from Mace, Aayla and Anakin are left alone again. Aayla swallows and gestures towards his missing arm.

“When did that happen?”

He lifts the stump and stares at it for a few seconds, and she senses him trying to understand what the lack of flesh means. Then, he looks up at her. “I think Yan did it.”

“Jaieh Yan?”

“Sii jaieh Yan,” he corrects her, and her heart rises all the way to her head, making her feel light and airy and weightless in all the wrong ways. Anakin looks both confused and frustrated and upset and not okay, his handless-arm falling to his side, his remaining hand scratching at the hair at the back of his neck, then running through it from forehead to back, and then falling to his shoulders and pulling at the collar of his tunic before it goes to adjust his belt.

“And they are?” Aayla says, nodding her head towards the figures in white armour, wrapping her arms around herself, wishing she’d brought a robe or something. While the arena is hot, and it is a desert planet, she feels impossibly cold, all over.

Sii, Anakin a’ainru.

Well, that explains the cold, at least. Aayla shivers, and looks around the arena, sticking close to Anakin, for both their sakes. She has no clue where the woman that Anakin and Obi-Wan were supposed to be protecting had gone - she had the sense that in another world, the Naboo Senator and Anakin might have a different relationship, which was both horrifying and funny, since they were raheniel, her and Anakin, and she didn’t want to be connected to a politician, of all things.

“General?”

Oh, there’s a general around now? Aayla glances around, reaching mentally for Anakin, who's just as confused as she is, and they both turn to the soldier together, staring at them.

“Um, hi,” Anakin says because he’s diplomatic like that. Aayla decides to tell him off later, preferably when they’re back at the Temple, with Asajj and Tiplee and Tiplar and can pretend to be Younglings again - fascinating, what the sight of imkai raheniel can do to your urges to be an ibli kyber again. The soldier doesn’t quite understand, and Aayla can sense it, and she knows Anakin does too.

“Who’re you talking to?” Aayla says before Anakin can make things worse, though she’s not sure she’s improving the situation either. In her defence, she just lost ollun raheniel, and probably isn’t coping the best at the moment.

“Sir? You’re a Jedi Knight. You’re - you’re a General.”

Aayla and Anakin exchange looks of horror, not that the soldier would notice, since most of it is through the Force. In unison, they turn back to the soldier.

“I’m a Jedi. We’re not soldiers.”

“Sir, it’s in the regs.”

That doesn’t make sense, and seven minutes of what is mostly a conversation, with too much talk of regulations, military talk, talk about Generals, and  _ yes sirs  _ later, they haven’t cleared anything up. Aayla runs a hand over her head, a habit she picked up from Anakin, or maybe Asajj, and down her right lek, all the way to the end, which she grips lightly, using the touch as her anchor.

“We’re Jedi,” she tells the soldier again and then remembers she hasn’t asked for a name yet. “Who are you?”

“CC-5052, Commander Bly, sir.”

She and Anakin exchange glances, and have a silent argument about who gets to tell the jaieh-raheniel about the newest development. Aayla wins, and Anakin, who’s still missing his hand - Aayla keeps forgetting about that - heads off to go deliver the news. That’s when Bly notices the missing hand.

“Sir, should the Commander -”

“Be missing a hand?” She finished with him, staring at the ground. With the toe of her boot, she nudged a rock, then twitched her fingers, looping the Force around it neatly, and pulling it up, up, up into the air, and spinning it around her fingertips, trying to ground herself in reality, because she’s sure that she’s going to lose time if she doesn’t. “Probably not. That rahkadar is crazy, don’t worry about it. Two of them are xari - one is sii now, I guess, one gets pummeled by visions daily, one is wayyy too connected to plants, one of them enjoys drinking poison - I think it’s poison, at least - one of them is a theatre nerd, and Anakin is Anakin.”

There’s a pause. Aayla looks up from her rock, to find Bly staring right at it. She drops it into her palm, and he does the mental version of a blink. She goes back to her rock, passing it from one hand to the other, using it as an anchor, like jaieh-raheneil Obi’s river stone did for him. She’s not fully convinced that it’s working right, but it’s the best she can do at the moment, and it’s all she’s got.

“Haj dai, Anohrah foh,” she says softly, feeling slightly selfish at exactly how it’s said, but she does want to go home, more than anything. Go home and be a little Youngling again, playing with finger paints and not worrying about anything.

She knows she can’t go back. They all know that. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](https://js71.tumblr.com/post/624273937698865152/submit-requests)!
> 
>  **Jaieh-raheniel:** Master’s sibling; uncle/aunt
> 
>  **Imkai:** death
> 
>  **Kar paden:** they taught
> 
>  **Aay’shee:** nickname, from Aayla
> 
>  **Rakaah keelak wungak:** Are you (physically hurt)
> 
>  **Shet:** No
> 
>  **Ibli sooah foh enoctak:** My head hurts a bit (mentally)
> 
>  **Cadeo:** Stop
> 
>  **Orhma foh:** lit. “I’m warm”; I’m fine.
> 
>  **Sii:** Sith
> 
>  **A'ainru:** Said
> 
>  **Ollun:** Many
> 
>  **Anohrah:** Jedi Temple, home


End file.
